Also known as Bananas Foster, this delicious and fun recipe started in New Orleans. Everyone should try this at least once...and I guarantee you will be wanting more after each time! But be careful...this dessert is literally on fire!!!

Ingredients:

• 6 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced (either sliced into rounds or in half)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 2 tablespoons banana liquor
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Melt butter and sugar, add bananas, saute over high heat for 2 minutes or until bananas begin to brown. Add all spirits carefully and light. Shake until flames die, add cream and swirl. Serve over ice cream.

Make about 6 servings.

Sick and tired of that nasty heatwave? Try cooling off with this easy and all natural fruit popsicles! Don't be afraid to experiment with flavors either...try adding herbs to the syrup or adding fresh fruit pieces to the popsicle molds or even mix different fruits together. Just start with this basic recipe and the sky is the limit!

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1-2 lbs. fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, honeydew, peaches/nectarines, kiwi, pineapple, etc)
3 sprigs of fresh herbs to infuse syrup (mint, basil, rosemary, etc.) OPTIONAL

Directions
To make simple syrup, gently heat sugar and water, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; let cool.
Rinse, prepare, and puree fruit. (Mash hulled berries, deseed honeydew, pit and roast peaches at 350F for 20 minutes and mash with or without skins)
For every cup of pureed fruit, add 1/3-1/2 cup simple syrup. Taste as you go, adding more fruit or syrup as needed. (keep in mind that when they freeze they will lose a little bit of sweetness, so you might want to make them a little sweeter than you would like)
Pour mixture into molds, add sticks, and freeze.

Cutting boards: glass, wood, bamboo, plastic...so many choices, but how do you decide?

For starters, avoid glass boards. Glass boards dull your knives and you don't even need a cutting board anymore if you don't have any knives left.

Wood or bamboo boards are great. They look nice and are very easy to chop on, as long as you wash it thoroughly in warm, soapy water afterward. Do NOT put a wood board into the dishwasher or soak it for too long. Being in water or high temperatures for too long can crack or warp the board. Wood boards are great for breads and vegetables, but be careful cutting meats as the juices can soak in and cause a sanitation nightmare!


Plastic boards are ideal for raw meat, because you can pop them into the dishwasher as soon as you are done. Plastic boards are usually more stain resistant than wood. So they are much better for color rich foods like beets. Plastic boards also come in a variety of colors, so you can assign colors to certain types of foods and avoid cross contamination. Plus, many of them are bendable which makes it easy to pick up and dump right into the pan.